Congratulations to Sir Keir Starmer and the Labour Party. The Eastern Powerhouse would like to welcome the new Labour government, which has achieved a resounding majority and a clear mandate to govern.
People and businesses right across the East of England urge the Prime Minister to kick start his growth agenda, to inject confidence in our economy and make the UK thrive again.
This is a truly historic day and a transformative political change in the history of the United Kingdom. The election has brought about numerous surprises. We are now looking at a new political landscape for the East of England.
This as an opportunity for the country and for the East.
Executive Director of Eastern Powerhouse, Steven Lynch MBE, says:
"We welcome the new ‘change’ agenda, with a mission-driven focus on growth. This is exactly what we’ve been calling for at the Eastern Powerhouse. We welcome further devolution, planning reforms and championing of local industries; namely, life -sciences, Agri-Tech, advanced manufacturing and construction."
A new political settlement
Traditionally the East has been a Conservative heartland, but the new Labour government has made major in-roads and the region now looks very different. New MPs have been elected across the East, with many areas falling to Labour for the first time. They will want to deliver on Keir Starmer’s five missions, and they will want to support their new constituents and their region. In addition, the Liberal Democrats have made significant gains, while the Green Party and Reform have broken through the - what appeared to be - impermeable blue block. The East has long struggled to raise its voice. We hope all MPs - across all parties - will join us and fight for the East. On our part, we would like to sincerely thank all MPs who were not re-elected, for their support of the Eastern Powerhouse.
The East of England is a great place to live and work but we believe a new contract is needed between the public and private sector, therefore the time to ‘kick start economic growth’ starts today! Labour has previously outlined in their 'Change' manifesto, growth is the central mission and will be achieved through a National Wealth Fund, Planning reforms, stronger devolution, and a new industrial strategy with clean energy at its centre. The Eastern Powerhouse welcomes these actions… now is the time to deliver!
The Eastern Powerhouse welcomes Labour’s commitments to:
An Enhanced devolution framework - Labour has reaffirmed commitments to devolution, placing greater emphasis on combined authorities, city regions and local mayoral control. Labour have committed to place-specific polices, tailoring government support towards economic clusters.
Transportation - Labour have focused on modernising the UK transport infrastructure and will overhaul Britain’s railways network and speed up long-promised road improvements. Connectivity is the biggest issue in the East, we welcome the attention on transport infrastructure and the desperately needed upgrade to a modern transport network.
Housing - Labour have committed to 1.5 million new homes over the next parliament.
Water - The Labour manifesto has identified water as a crucial foundation for infrastructure development, to which we welcome Labour’s ambitions to forge ahead with reservoir development. This is critical in the East, in which our reservoirs can now be considered as nationally significant infrastructure projects that must be accelerated.
Planning system - Labour will immediately update the National Policy Planning Framework. Restoring mandatory housing targets, allowing regional authorities to create localised Plans and support local authorities by funding additional planning officers.
Education and Skills - We welcome the commitment to “a comprehensive strategy for post-16 education”, as there is growing consensus amongst FE and HE sector bodies that we need a whole-system approach to change, rather than piecemeal initiatives.